Yes, we are still here.

Today was kind of a lazy day as well (I know I'm slacking, but what can I say?). We didn't have class or anything scheduled for this morning and so Jason and I decided that we would go to a shop we had heard about called Primark. For those who have never been to Primark, it is amazing. It is essentially a large department store with secondhand store prices. So there were t-shirts for a pound, button ups for 3 pounds, shoes for 2-5, I could have bought a full suit for under 20 pounds throw in some real leather shoes and we're up to 35 pounds. It was wonderful. The only issue is that I have a limited amount of room and weight left in my check bag for when I return home. I'm already starting to think about which of the clothes I brought from home I will leave here to free up some space. But due to this limited capacity I actually didn't buy that many things. I did get a couple shirts to make me look more European (although that's not always good since we have a hard time determining whether a guy is European or gay...).

After Primark Jason and I realized that we needed to get to the Tricycle theater and fast. We had a matinee that started at 2:00 and from what the teacher was saying we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to get there. We ran into two problems: the directions that the teacher had printed off for us started from our flat, which we were not at, and our helpful roommate Allan had told us which bus we needed to take from Primark... but we had forgotten what number he said. So, it was an adventure. Actually it mostly involved us reading a map. But since we have been mostly using the tube system, we really didn't know how to read the bus maps.

Long story short, we made it. Actually we made it before most of the class did, including the two teachers.

The Tricycle is a pretty neat theatre. Here is its entrance:

They had made a mobile out of three bicycle wheels (granted I guess that would be a tricycle then). And they had a magical corridor of mirrors.


Here's Jason pointing into the worlds of eternity.

Then there was Twelfth Night. This was quite the interesting interpretation of the classic Shakespearean play. It was set in a recording studio, or something. There was no set, and actually no real setting for the play at all. It looked like you had stumbled into a rock concert with seats for the audience. Once the play got going it all made sense.

The show was developed by a group called "Filter" that focuses on the merging of musicians, actors, directors, and all sorts of theatre makers. The idea behind their shows is that they find the highs and the lows in the emotion of the script and then they use music to help tell that story. So, for example, when the Duke Orsino is being a whiny love-sick puppy, it was like a poetry reading in a coffee house with heavy bass and a brush on the snare with Orsino quoting his lines like a beatnik. When Malvolio, the "bad guy" of the show is contemplating how awesome it would be to be a count, it is to the tune of a hard rock song (which he played the air guitar on). And so on.

I loved it. I feel that it worked almost every scene that it was included in. Overall the show was just fun. It was ridiculous and self referential (like Viola speaking to an FM radio which answered her back instead of a messenger). But I think overall my favorite part was the interplay between the two drunk revelers Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew.

The show was set in modern times, everyone was wearing the type of clothing you would expect them to be in on the street. That is, except for Sir Toby. His first entrance, he stumbles in drunk at the back of the stage in full Elizabethan clothing, doublet, tights, frilly starched collar, and starts quoting the "to be or not to be" quote from Hamlet. He then polishes off a beer and wanders off the other side of the stage. The rest of the cast then resumed the play where they had left off.

The best scene, however, had absolutely nothing to do with progressing the plot. Sir Toby wakes up from being passed out on the floor, and in his drunken revelry starts whisper/drunk singing a song about love, then Sir Andrew (also drunk) comes and joins him in his singing. Sir Andrew is wearing this amazing hat with strips of velcro all over it and three squishy balls stuck to the velcro. As the scene goes on, chaos reigns. Sir Toby gets the band to start playing along with him and sings at the top of his lungs, Sir Andrew discovers the balls stuck to his head and has the audience try to throw them at him to get them to stick, then they pulled an audience member up and had him wear a velcro hat, then they started pulling audience members up to start dancing with them, then my professor (of his own volition) got on stage and started dancing (and when returning to his seat climbed the scaffolding the seats were on and accidentally broke a light), and then Sir Andrew ran to the back of the audience to the door and shouted "Pizza!" at which point he started passing two pizza boxes through the audience (I didn't get any).

The scene was nuts, but so fun.

I really loved this show. It was all around a good time. Not the best acting in the world, maybe not even the best interpretation, but it was a side of the show that I had not considered before and it was extremely fun, and yet at moments very poignant as well.

One character that is always rather troubling is Malvolio. He is the bad guy, but in reading the script, and in most productions you watch, he gets way more than he deserves. This show handled it in a very interesting way. They made him evil. Very evil. He started strangling the clown.

Then there is the famous scene where Sir Toby tricks Malvolio into thinking that to woo a lady he must dress himself in a ridiculous fashion (Toby fakes a letter from the lady saying that she prefers a man in yellow stockings who is cross gartered). This production was grotesquely hilarious. Malvolio (played by a man with a bit of a gut) stripped down to thigh high yellow socks and yellow booty shorts... and that's it. He then danced around the stage to his hard rock song until he was discovered by his lady (shocked to say the least) and the play continued.

Now if we just left it there, it wouldn't have been too much and it would have been deserved (he is a mean guy). But there is one more scene.

Because of his antics, the lady puts Malvolio under the care of Sir Toby, who hates him. Sir Toby and the clown, Touchstone, then put Malvolio in a lightless prison with duct tape around his wrists providing him with little food and torturing him with constant noise and talking. It is a brutal scene, and this production left the brutality in it. They didn't try to soften it at all.

So I find it interesting that I could have so much fun during one raucous scene and feel like a jerk for siding with the guy who ended up torturing a man in another scene. Good show.

I know this post is rather long, but the one other thing that we did today was get some great middle-eastern food. The Tricycle theater is located, oddly enough, in the middle of the middle-eastern immigrant community. I'm not sure what you would call it, "Little Lebanon"? Anyhow, it was quite good and really cheap.

Tonight we chose not to see another show. We were all tired and just needed some rest. Tomorrow we are going to Kew Gardens, so expect lots of pictures... to be on my camera at least. After that we will probably go see a show. I'm shooting for 6/6 this week.

Hooray!

Today was a rather uneventful day. Sorry. I went to class early this morning (yes we take classes here) and we performed our scene from All My Sons. It went well, especially for being the first group to go. Then I came home and worked on a paper that was due at five.

Tonight we went and saw a show at the Hampstead Theatre called Andersen's English. Now when I first of this show, I didn't care to see it at all. It sounded boring and awful. My opinion has changed fully.

The premise of the story is that Hans Christian Andersen (interestingly enough played by a black actor in this show) shows up unannounced at the home of Charles Dickens. However, Andersen, a Dane, has extremely poor English skills. And so there is a fair amount of humor that comes from his innocent attempts to understand both the language and the customs of the household.

The rest of the story is not so happy as it examines the decaying world of Charles Dickens, who is forcing a son to go to war in India, forcing his wife to separate from him, kicking out the Irish maidservant who is pregnant with his son's child out of wedlock, and so on. It's hard to watch in the way that drama should be. It was incredibly well written and very quotable (I just don't remember many of them...).

Mostly it came down to the wonderful script and some very strong performances by some key actors. Dickens was incredibly engaging to the point of becoming annoying, which helps the audience to connect with his wife and son who have become fed up with his emotional abuse of sorts. Andersen worked very well. This was one of those roles that challenges actors by not allowing them to really use their voice, which is one of their main tools.

Anyhow, the show was one of the better ones that I have seen so far. Also it was one of the cheapest and we had seats in row 2. So the experience was great as well.

I plan on posting more tomorrow (look at me keeping my little resolution thing). Tomorrow we are heading to Primark, which is a chain of second-hand/cheap clothing shops. Then we are seeing Twelfth Night at the Tricycle Theatre as a matinee. There also has been some talk of going to the National Theatre tomorrow night to see if we can find another show.

I know it seems like I'm going to see a lot of shows, but for me that's the whole point of being here. I love it. I'm so happy that there's so much to see.

If the title confuses you at all it's because tonight's show, Psy, was so absolutely incredible I may have forgotten some of the other things that I did as well. I'm not even sure where to begin. I guess if you need a point of reference you could think of Cirque du Soleil. But it was still quite different. First off, the soundtrack was amazing. The songs were sort of a mix of electronica and tango, a lot of deep bass and some of the best beats that I have heard in a while. Then there was the story. You might say "I thought that the circus and acrobatic show didn't have a story" well you see, that's where this show was different. The show started with some facts being read over the PA about mental disorders (i.e. 25% of people will have enough symptoms to qualify as having a mental disorder). Then each character was introduced and their disease was named off. The diseases ranged from insomniac to amnesiac to manic to hears voices and so on. Each disease was linked to the actor's special ability. For example, the addict was the actor who performed in the german ring, which made sense with the interpretation of addiction being a cycle that can't be easily broken.

Everything was just incredible.
Here are some clips I found online:






So it was wonderful. And after the show, while we were all raving, the cast came out. I felt like the little kid who goes to the actors to ask for their autograph because that's exactly what I did. I had them sign my program. Granted some of them weren't there, but oh well. After talking with the actors, we found that they weren't sure where their tour would take them. It is a fairly new show and they are just now getting some of the producers to come watch. So if any theatrical producer happens to be reading my blog, this show is worth it! Book them!

Anyhow.

The other things that we did today:
-Went to the Museum of London. This is a free museum that focuses on London's history through the great fire of 1666 (at least that's what was open today, there was some construction going on that may have had more stuff). It was neat. I find some of the historical periods fascinating (not all of them though, I'm looking at you neolithic).
-We went to the Smithfield Market thinking it would have the same fair-like atmosphere of the Borough Market. It was closed.
-I had bangers and mash. It was yummy. (Sausage and Mashed Potatoes with gravy... in a box). Jason got the Pie and Mash with gravy. It was a pumpkin and goat cheese pie. And everything is served with mash.
-We went to the Banqueting House. This was actually more fun than I expected. It is a large reception hall that was built back by Henry VIII. It was pretty cool to take the self guided audio tour and to imagine all of the history that had passed through that building and all of the nobles that had been there. Charles I was even executed just outside the main door. The best part about the Banqueting House is the set of nine very large paintings on the ceiling that Charles commissioned from some famous painter that I can't remember. They are gorgeous. I will post pictures later.

Okay. I need to sleep. I am unsure what is happening tomorrow. There is a show that was scheduled as optional, but it sounds like it may be canceled for the class due to content. We'll see, I may have to make some plans on my own, or just get caught up on homework and picture processing for the trip.

I'm in London. Some of you may already know this. But for those who were unaware, I am here doing a six-week study abroad for the theatre program. I'm loving it. However, all my friends were starting these special blogs for their journeys, and I decided that I wasn't going to start another blog that I don't ever post on, until I continue to post semi-annually on this one... if that makes sense. Also there is apparently some new google "let's see if you're really a human" thing that makes you verify your identity via text message, which I am currently without in the UK.

Seeing as I am constantly putting off blogging, there is a lot to catch people up on, and I will try my darndest, but I will also try to keep my writing time (and your reading time) to a minimum, because, honestly, I would rather be doing other things. But I also want to share all of the wonderful things that have been happening and weird experiences that we have had so far.

As is my custom, I will condense most everything into list form.

-I have been here about six full days. (Worth about 9 days in the states, but the exchange rate is pretty bad).
-I have seen five plays in those six days. I see this as an accomplishment, since that is kind of what I came here to do.
-I have seen: The 39 Steps, 11 & 12, Macbeth, Antigone, and Les Miserables. I will try to go back and write about most of these because they were all mostly amazing (minus Antigone).
- I have learned how the tube system works and use it frequently.
-I have eaten lots of wonderful food. (My favorite so far has been the lamb burger with grilled haloumi cheese).
-I have felt like a tourist. (It's not a fun feeling for me).
-I have done lots of other things. (Good description Christian...)

Really though, I'm loving it here. I love culture. I love theater. I am glad that I get to experience both here in great abundance. I find it amazing just how comfortable I can feel in a foreign country after just a week. I have been taking some pictures and I will try to post some in a reasonable time. But for now I need some sleep so that I can continue the adventure tomorrow. I will try very hard to keep this updated on a frequent but short post basis so that I don't fall behind and put it off.

Just as a little preview, tomorrow we're going to the London Museum (that may not actually be what it's called...) and the Banqueting House, then tomorrow night a few of us are going to see a play/circus/acrobatics show called Psy which explores the idea of the seven layers of the psyche. Sounds interesting. I'll let you know how it is.... plus pictures... I promise... no really...

I first thought that I would just post something on the blog and pretend like I had been regularly posting for the past year, but I thought it would be pretty obvious that it's not true. Then I thought I should at least make up some excuse about why I haven't blogged in nearly a year, but I figured it would be pretty easy to see through all of the standard excuses such as: "I didn't have time" or "I didn't have anything to blog about" or "sharks ate my hands and I had to have them replaced with meat cleavers and I spent the past six months re-learning how to type aoinvran ea omc som fdo aiwto aisundf omaweo vcoiwame cowai ofdz ho." Most people can tell that in reality the reason I haven't blogged is because I can be supremely lazy at times, and by at times I mean for ten month stretches. I thought about summing the last year up in a couple of sentences, but that just didn't seem to do justice to some of the things which have happened over the last forever. Buckle in, because that seems like a really good way to start a long story:

I did some stuff a long time ago, I don't remember what.

the end.



No not really, let's start at the first significant event I can remember since my last blog post: I met a wonderful girl named Vanessa Lau. She's from Chelmsford, England (if you're wondering where that is, it's about 29 miles outside of New Jersey) and had just come down for the summer to chill with her friends and meet new people. With that in mind it was a very successful summer for her. She is majoring in Political Science, is wonderfully amazing, and before you ask the most ridiculous question of all: Yes, she does have a British accent. You think this would be obvious, seeing as I did mention she was from England (which happens to be near Britain, I think they're old rugby rivals), but I get questioned about her accent more than I get questions such as: "do you like her?" or "where did you meet her?" or "does she eat raw meet?"

In case you were wondering (you probably weren't, but tough, I'm typing so I'm going to tell you anyways), we met in my BYU ward and our first conversation was about cars and the British motoring show Top Gear. When she told me she loved the show I knew she was a special girl, and then later that week I found out that her dream car is a Porsche and I knew it would be love. I asked her out and she said she was busy. But then, much to my surprise, she invited me to come with her to a party. That first night was just incredible, I swear the room spun around her, but I think that was because the party was in an apartment above a hookah shop (I know, Shady, right?). We began to hang out a lot (sorry Dallin H. Oaks), and then I began dating her. And then a couple of days later she began dating me. That sounds cliche, but it's actually very true.

About the same time that I began to hang out (sorry again Elder Oaks) with Vanessa, I found out that I had been, by some gross oversight on the part of the Marriott School, been accepted into the Masters of Accountancy program at BYU, specializing in Taxation (thank you for asking, I will have to do your taxes someday, unfortunately that day is not yet). Needless to say I was having a pretty good start to the summer.

Also about the same time I began working for a company called DataMetrix. I was affectionately known as "the Excel Guy" because my position really didn't have an official title, although I started referring to myself as Dr. Excel, The Excel Guru, and other nerdy titles, as you might imagine. I was basically in charge of fixing the weekly reporting system and running any other report that my supervisors could come up with. It was a really good position because it forced me to learn a lot of new things about Excel, VBA, and SQL (if you don't know what that last sentence meant, good for you, you're probably a really cool person and probably have lots of friends. Not everyone can be like you, don't judge me). The only caveat to the job was that it was located in Murray, which is about 45 minutes from Provo, thus giving me my first experience in the commuter's life. If anyone has ever commuted before they know what kind of spectacular experience I had; you start to listen to traffic reports like they hold all of the answers to life, stare longingly at the carpool land, and silently curse any car which uses their brakes. I frequently found myself staring at all of the people driving the opposite direction from me and wondering why we didn't all just exchange houses, it would significantly reduce the commute.

Also at about the same time I learned that one of the greatest goals in my college career had finally been realized: I made it on to the Unofficial BYU Ultimate Frisbee team! This one came as a huge shock; I had been practicing with the team a lot and had been doing my best, but I thought there were a lot of people more qualified than me to be on the team. I guess persistence really does pay off though.

Summer was terrific! One of my absolute best friends, Chris Beach, got married and I was able to go and be in his wedding party. It was an awesome trip (I thought at least) in spite of a little issue we had with our car (it crashed in to the bride and groom's car) and my work laptop (the screen was ripped clean from the rest of the computer in said crash). We also got to go home to Minnesota with the rest of the family for more weddings and for a trip up to Duluth, MN.

Vanessa and I took a road trip out to San Fransisco, CA to hang out with her sister and just to have a fun road trip. It was amazing! I've never taken a real random road trip, and so this was an absolute blast! Driving through the night is a lot harder than one might expect, I really gained a new respect for my parents who did it year after year coming out to Utah.

I ended up really falling for Vanessa over the summer, and she ended up really wanting to go on a mission. So in September she went home to England (29 miles outside of New Jersey) and I started school. If anyone thinks they know what a "long distance relationship" is, I think I can top that. "No, no" you say, "my significant other went even further than England." Just you wait, it gets better. Never has any couple spent so much time on Skype; nearly every minute Vanessa and I were awake we were in front of our computers. "What could you possibly spend 5 hours a day talking about?" you ask. I really have no idea, but we did, and loved every minute of it. Then Vanessa got a mission call to Taipei, Taiwan (told you it gets better, that's 9,749 miles away, which is quite the walk). At first it was really hard to be fully supportive of sending her on a mission, but the more I thought about it and prayed about it, the more I knew it was right. Once again, to answer the inevitable question: yes, I do plan on waiting. Yes, I know that will be hard. Yes, I still think I can do it. Really. I'm serious. Yes, I do really really really like her. No, the Church doesn't have rules preventing this.

Somewhere in all of the mission stuff and skyping, I was selected for and internship with Ernst and Young for this coming summer in San Jose, CA.

I was able to spend Thanksgiving out in England (really, it's just like North New Jersey) with Vanessa and her family. We did a whirlwind tour of Europe, visiting Venice (in Pennsylvania), Paris (west of Hawaii), and London (somewhere on the Moon). I keep using a lot of hyperbole in referring to how wonderful everything is, but I couldn't use enough hyperbole to describe this trip. Vanessa's family was spectacular, Europe was fun, and Vanessa was Vanessa! Unfortunately, Thanksgiving was the last time we would be able to see each other before Vanessa left on her mission. Unless, of course, you count Christmas :)

Originally, Christmas wasn't in the plans, but young impulsive people sometimes do young and impulsive things, like buying last minute tickets for their significant others to fly to the United States and spend Christmas in Minnesota. If I haven't used enough superlatives and hyperbole: Christmas was the greatest Christmas ever! It was wonderful, amazing, spectacular, perfect, fun, super, and blow-your-mind-exquisite! The whole family + Vanessa were in MN for the holidays. I love my family. Being with them is always an adventure of some sort (usually of the computer sort). Add on top of that Vanessa... you get the picture. The saddest part of the trip was dropping Vanessa off at the airport, knowing it would be the last time I would see her for two years. Unless, of course, you count the morning she entered the MTC :)

Originally, seeing her before she entered the MTC was not in the plans, see previous paragraph for reasoning. We spent the month of January back on skype and she spent it getting all of her mission/visa/school stuff sorted out. February 2nd was really the last day I saw her. She was all dressed like a missionary and we were able to sit and talk for a really long time before she had to scamper off and start serving the Lord for 18 Months (now only 17.25 months). And now, for the last three weeks I have re-learned the art of letter writing, which is really difficult with meat cleavers for hands.

--Nathan

PS - Sorry this turned into "All about me and my Girlfriend." Well, i'm kind of sorry; she's amazing and deserves the attention, but I'm not sure anyone really wanted that much detail.

PPS - Rather than put a bunch of pictures in my post I will update the pictures in the slideshow on the right of the blog.

PPPS - Don't be surprised if it's another 10 months before you hear from me again :)

Hello everyone. I figured that on my return to the blogging world I would indulge in a little shameless self advertising. The main reason that I haven't had much time this last semester is because back in the glorious month of September I was cast in BYU's mainstage production of Tartuffe, a 17th century French comedy by Moliere. Since then it has been long nights of rehearsal and sweat and tears. However, all of our hard work was rewarded last night when we had our first audience. They loved it. The house was nearly full and their reception was wonderful.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show, it centers around a hypocritical man who has weaseled his way into a man's house and is mooching off of his kindness. The family wants nothing to do with this hypocrite and tries to convince the father to kick him out, and hilarity ensues (obviously).

Now our take on this play is truly something special. Our director really wanted our piece to have a Tim Burton feel to it (think The Nightmare Before Christmas or Edward Scissorhands). This includes an amazing set full of pictures frames that can either be made transparent or be used to cast silhouettes. The costumes, hair, and make-up all feel like something straight out of Beetlejuice. And of course there is the original music. One of our cast members has written an original score for the show and it sounds SO good.

However this fun little score called for someone to play the clarinet. So... now I play the clarinet. It's actually a lot of fun. Although it was more difficult than I was expecting (even though my Assistant Director, who plays the clarinet, was impressed by how quickly I caught on). So I would like to formally apologize to anyone from my high school band who I may have chastised for not playing their clarinet part perfectly. You now have my sympathy.

For those of you who are in range of BYU and would like to come see the show, DO SO! Really I think that you will quite enjoy it. We run basically every night from now until February 6th. Here's a link where you can buy tickets. And here are some pictures of the production (I'm purposely not posting pictures of me so that it won't ruin the surprise).
(photo credit goes to Michael Handley)

So, I guess that's about it. Oh never fear, I have plenty more to talk about I just don't want to bore you with the longest post on the planet. But here is a preview of some of the other wonderful things happening in my life:

-I'm working on my senior directing project which is an adaptation of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis.
-I'm dating a beautiful girl. (It makes me happy!)
-I'm going on a study abroad to London in the Spring. (That is, once I find some money)
-I now have a photo website.
-I have a photo website that actually has pictures on it.
-I am a TA for Theatre 101 and it's swell.
-I have added a Psychology Teaching minor, and I am trying to learn new things.
-I still have a severe lack of time.

See you in a few months!

I really enjoyed this session of General Conference. I mean I always do (who doesn't?)(atheists). I guess I forget just how much I enjoy it. The talk of the town this conference time is Elder Holland's amazingly powerful and impassioned talk about the truth of the Book of Mormon. It was interesting because at one point I thought "This isn't how general authorities speak normally," but then he mentioned something about the world and I reached a decision: this talk is not for me, I can listen to it, but it was Elder Holland speaking to the world, everyone. At least that's my interpretation of it. It is still helpful to the members of the church, but it was not aimed at them. It made me think that must have been what Abinadi sounded like when boldly standing before King Noah.

However, I think that the apostles should have a "This talk is going to be the most quoted talk for the next six months" award. Elder Holland would have it two sessions running. Other winners would be the "Don't Hang Out" talk by Elder Oaks and the "Good Better Best" talk also by Elder Oaks (who looks like he'll be a contender). I hope you don't find this sacrilegious by any means, I really do love and respect these men. They are marvelous speakers and the doctrine is true. I just find it amazing how there always seems to be that one talk that sticks out from the rest, and because of this, it will be our elders quorum lesson bi-monthly for the next year.

Okay, blasphemy aside. I had an amazing weekend. My goal this year was to not try and write down full quotes from the talks, but to write who was speaking and any thoughts that I had while they were speaking. Then I can go back later and re-read the talks and find the quotes. If they meant that much to me now, they'll at least mean something to me then. It went swimmingly. I have pages and pages of notes. Just thoughts about life. A new outlook on some things that I will try to implement and improve on.

Anyhow. I'm excited to go back and revisit these talks over the next six months. I hope that you will too. Here it is.






Seriously, I'm not blasphemous.

I make fliers...

I like music. A lot.

My roommate Scott and I were discussing just how much music I have and how fast I'm getting it. I currently have 25085 items (songs) which would take 99.2 days to listen to and takes up 132.30 Gigabytes of space on my hard-drive. We compared those numbers with the ones I posted on May 13, and then did some generalizations. We figured that I'd been adding an average of 70 songs everyday for the past 100 days. This also means that in the past 100 days I've added 50 days worth of music. That means that I'd have to have music running for 12 hours out of the day with no repeats in order to keep up. But my favorite way to look at it is that I have added as much music in the past 100 days as I have in the past four years...

That's actually kind of disgusting.

Anyhow, that brings me to the real point of this post. I feel that music is like a good book, or an inspirational movie. It can be a powerful emotional force in life and when you are lucky enough to stumble across something worthwhile, it deserves to be shared. There's no point in having all of this music if I can't make other people's lives better.

So, in that vein I would like to introduce you to Sigur Ros (and if I knew how to make letters have accents, the 'o' would have a fun little line above it). I have been listening to them for about three years now, and I love them. They are an Icelandic band and they are national heroes to the tiny island. The music is mostly of an ethereal nature, which is created through some interesting instrumental techniques (such as using a cello bow on an electric guitar, or singing into the guitar's pickups rather than the microphone).

I had seen their videos and I knew they were inspiring, but I revisited them tonight and I remembered just how great they can be. I know that watching three videos can take some time but I really hope that you take my word for it and watch them all. So here goes.

-Von- This re-release is off of one of their newer albums that was accompanied by a Dvd (although a different version of the song had been released on an earlier album). The band was directly involved in the making of a documentary, called Heima, that focused on the hidden beauties of Iceland. It is an absolutely gorgeous film. Here is a great song from the Dvd.



-Glosoli (again those 'o's would totally have accents over them)-This video makes me cry about half the time that I watch it. I love it because there is an amazing build at the end of the song and the cinematography matches perfectly. There is a lot of discussion as to the exact theme of the video, I think you should work on developing your own theory.

(Okay, youtube disabled embedding on this one, so you'll have to click here, entirely worth the click though. And make sure to click 'HD'.)

-Svefn-g-englar- This video makes me cry... always... within the first minute. I love the quotes, I love the song, and I love the respect that is paid to the wonderful special needs theatre group who make the video. I think there is something absolutely angelic about the whole situation. I've tried to think why it makes me cry so much and I think it really has to do with the beauty and the perfection that is shown. It feels like heaven.




Alright. Thanks for humoring me. I may do this once or twice more. I know that this post was more sentimental than humorous, but maybe it brightened your day.

Don't worry, that's the title of a play, I'm not creative enough to have come up with that tasty little play on words/phrase.

So, remember the post where I said I wasn't doing anything with my life? It was a lie. A blatant, terrible lie. I have been doing stuff and things. It's been great.

One of these stuffs that I have be doing is directing for a local theatre group known as New Play Project.

Thank You.



Your diligence has not gone unnoticed. As our blog is titled "Yes We Are Still Here" (see above), yes I am still here. Not posting often (such classic blogger style), but it's never too late to start the comeback right?

To be honest, I haven't had much time to blog. No wait, that's entirely false, I'm not doing anything with my time whatsoever.

I took spring classes (which turned out very well BTW) but those ended in late June. I don't have a job right now. Sounds cool right? Wrong, entirely so. It was fun for the first little bit, but after my 3rd straight day of doing nothing but watching youtube, I was done with it.

Oh, our car died! You remember the one that was on it's way out before? Well, it officially bit the dust... because we killed it. Well, I killed it. I may or may not have discovered the secret to unlocking the airbags in your car... hit something. Seriously, try it. It works.

This lovely adventure all took place on our trip to Seattle. Luckily there was no structural damage to our car or to the car of the bride and groom, who we happened to be following...

"But if there was no damage to the car, why do you want to get rid of it?" Good question... um... you. Turns out new airbags run about $2,400, which is 2.5x the value of the car. So say hello to the newest member of the family... Honda!! (pretend there's a picture here). We recently celebrated the arrival of a bouncing baby 1998 Accord.

I started that reading thing again. You know the one with the books. With the words. It's been a while since I've had time for pleasure reading (rather than textbooks, ick). I decided not to make a goal, since my last one turned out so wonderfully (sarcasm). However, I do plan to read whatever I like, whenever I would like to. I figure that's a goal that I can accomplish! I have recently read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and am in the middle of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. They are both books.

I also do photography type stuff. I will now post pictures. These are from last night's "storm" (come on Utah, you call that weather). Although I must admit, lightning photography is going to be added to my list of sucky type photography (see: theatre photography). Oh right, the pictures (click on them for better resolution):
This is at the Provo Temple, which I also took pictures of, but I may post those later.

A bus stop outside the gates of the temple, this is one of my favorites.


These two have no lightning (a little lens flare) but I still love them anyways.

Alright for those diligent few who are still reading. Thanks for hanging in there. I'm going to end now because I have a Harry Potter book waiting for me (what am I doing?!). Oh and don't worry, Nathan still exists. He's around here somewhere...


(Oh and sorry if this post seems a little disjointed, I'm a little rusty...)

So, my birthday is coming soon. I haven't thought that much about it. Until today.

This just started the wish list.

For those of you who feel that I have been neglecting this blog, that is simply not true. I have been purposely postponing my posts (P's) so that I can do what all bloggers do and apologize for not having posted in forever. Trust me on this one. I would venture to say that 90% of blog posts start out "I know it's been a while..." I just want to fit in.

However, since I only have about half an hour before my next class, I will keep this brief and full of lists (probably). So here are some things:

-I am now called as the ward activities council co-chair. This means that I am in charge of entertaining my entire ward for a whole summer. Our first activity is a throw back to elementary school. Ask me more on Sunday.

-I took glamor shots for the ward directory. Go to flickr.com, search for my name (first and last) and then click on the people tab and you should be able to see a few of them.

-With those glamor shots I pushed myself up to about 12,000 shots on this camera. Let's see how high it can go!!

-Current state of my iTunes library: 17168 songs, 48.2 days, 85.32 gigs.

- I still try to read. (I just signed up for goodreads.com). Some of the things that I'm reading:

• Antigone written by Sophocles reworked by Jean Anouilh and translate out of French by Lewis Galantiere.
  
• Lord of the Flies
• Taking Steps by Alan Ayckbourn (it's a farce!)
• Red Noses by Peter Barnes (Plague comedies rock!

I just read THE dumbest news story I have ever read.  It has made me so mad I could... I'm gonna... I wanna... Blog!!! 

We're back! and we have a challenge for our avid listeners (that's you)!